Wrestling show helps raise money for ESU's campus radio station

ADAM McNAUGHTON

Monday

Nov 24, 2008 at 12:01 AM

Anthony Franco spends his days working as a claims representative for an insurance company. He spends his nights and weekends throwing his body around hastily assembled wrestling rings in small, professional wrestling matches.

Anthony Franco spends his days working as a claims representative for an insurance company. He spends his nights and weekends throwing his body around hastily assembled wrestling rings in small, professional wrestling matches.

Franco and pro wrestlers like him put their bodies on the line in small venues in front of small crowds, hoping only to entertain and then go home with all their bones intact.

"You have to love pro wrestling," said Franco, a 25-year-old from East Stroudsburg.

"There's going to be people, you can't convince them it's real," he said. "It's just like a movie. It's acting, there's theatrics. You either love wrestling or you just don't."

Most professional wrestlers are not worldwide superstars making millions of dollars in endorsements and pay-per-view television deals. They are showmen who train for years and then perform in relative obscurity for very little pay because they love entertaining.

Some of these wrestlers put their skills on display at a fundraising show at East Stroudsburg University on Sunday to support ESU's campus radio station, 90.3 WESS-FM.

More than 70 people watched the show and saw Franco and local pro wrestler Tim Donst join other wrestlers as they battled in a ring assembled in the middle of the Keystone Room.

Donst is a 21-year-old ESU student, studying to become an elementary school teacher when he's not body slamming opponents in the ring.

"I wrestled on the high school wrestling team and then I got into the school play junior year," said Donst, a Stroudsburg High School graduate who's also a veteran of the Mountaineer football and track teams. "I sort of thought of pro wrestling as a perfect blend of athletics and theater. I always loved entertaining people in general, in and out of wrestling. That's absolutely why I do it."

After about a year and a half and around 66 professional matches, Donst has sustained several injuries and regularly deals with the aches and pains that come with pro wrestling. So while the action may be scripted, the physical risk is not.

"I got a really, really bad concussion about a year ago," he said. "I couldn't drive for a while. I couldn't sleep. I thought I was done wrestling. So for people to say it's fake, I really don't know how you can fake a 300-pound man landing on you. If there is a way to fake it, please let me know because I would be all for it."

Doctors are ringside at every match and concussions are as much a part of pro wrestling as spandex. Injuries are almost expected — but Franco said training and concentration can protect wrestlers during the most dangerous maneuvers.

"There's a lot of pain, a lot of concussions," he said after his tag-team bout. "I've never broken bones, thankfully, I've never had that happen. I have seen accidents, broken bones, broken necks. You have to be careful. The one move I did out there tonight could have ended my life. I trust that person out there with me, he trusts me."

Franco has been wrestling on and off for about three years, he said, and has participated in around 40 matches. But wrestling in small shows is a passion, not a full-time profession. Franco works as a claims representative for an insurance company while he pursues pro wrestling.

"If you're going to be working these kinds of shows, you have to have a second job," he said. "It's not really like a superhero, but it's very much two different lives."

Donst wrestles under the persona of an all-American collegiate wrestler, complete with a likeness of Abraham Lincoln on his spandex wrestling suit and amateur wrestling earguards on his head. But he spends his days in class at ESU and said he has worked as a waiter while wrestling.

At its core, pro wrestling is a violent form of soap opera or stage show. There are heros and villains and getting the crowd to either cheer or boo is what makes these pros climb into the ring for nearly no money and very little chance of fame.

"It's playing to people's emotions," Franco said. "There's always supposed to be a good guy versus a bad guy. Matches really never work if it's not obvious who the bad guy is. People cheer when the good guy is on top and they boo when the bad guy is on top. You feed off the emotions and you time it just right, you feed off the crowd, to get that big reaction at the end."

Donst said he thinks wrestlers don't last long in the business if they are not into it to entertain the fans.

"I think a majority of professional wrestlers decide to become professional wrestlers because you get to feed off a live crowd and improv with the crowd there," he said. "Any media where people can go and forget about their problems, like movies or TV, I'm all for it. Wrestling is the best example of that because if you're having a bad day, you can't get kicked out of a wrestling match for yelling at the wrestlers. We want you to yell at us."

A pro wrestling show is not the first fundraiser WESS has held on campus, but it may be the most unique. Station manager Ashley McMichael said the event was a success as wrestlers worked to take down the ring after nearly four hours and 10 matches.

"It was really fun do the show and before to tell people about it because they were surprised, 'In the Keystone room?' I said, 'Yeah, we're going to have a ring and everything,'" she said.

It may be awhile before another pro wrestling match comes to ESU, but the wrestlers will be back in the ring soon. Because despite the pain, exhaustion and pay, it is too much fun to quit.

"I see myself doing this for a long time," Donst said. "I'd like to do it for as long as I can."

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